Game thread, Sounders FC vs. Chelsea

The golden scarf goes to …local renowned artist Dale Chihuly, creator of the Emerald Spire, the commemorative trophy that Sounders FC presented to Chelsea as a memoir of this game.
Chelsea in blue, Sounders FC in green.
12:07 — down on the field, Chihuly presents the SPire to Peter Kenyon, and another one to Seattle majority owner Joe Roth. Drew Carey and Tod Leiweke are also down there.
12:13 game on
3 — Jaqua with some nice dribbling, to Riley for the cross in front and headed away for a corner.
5 — Montero feeds it into Zakuani who can’t catch up to the ball, would have been a good chance.
9 — Whoa…Keller trips over the ball trying to control it and kick it out, and Chelsea’s Anelka swarms him before Keller emerges with the ball and gets it away. In the next instant he had to bat away a shot.
11 — Montero tries a long shot that goes wide.12 — GOAL Chelsea….Sturridge takes a feed from Malouda, stops, controls as Marshall goes past him and curls a shot past Keller into the far corner. 1-0 Chelsea.
Right now, Chelsea looks like the bigger, faster and more technically sound team that it normally would be. Even though this is its first preseason game.
16 — Deco to Anelka and Anelka zips into the clear on the dribble, but he can’t get a good shot off as Keller blocks angle and Marshall catches up to him.
Vagenas and Alonso playing MID, Ljungberg playing more up.
20 — Deco to Sturridge, same type of long pass and quick run up the middle in space for Chelsea. This time Sturridge’s shot goes wide.
30 — Now Seattle is on the attack. Riley runs through and has space to the left of the keeper, earns a corner. Zakuani just got a step on Bosingwa. Still Chelsea is stingy on defense.
32 — good run by Ljungberg and now Wahl is tackled, foul on Ballack and a free kick for SSFC from just outside of the penalty area. What a shot by Ljungberg, almost gets past Cech near post.35 — EASY goal for Chelsea — again, plenty of open space for CFC to work. Sturridge to Anelka, the cross to Lampard who has an easy shot and hits it with the side of his foot past Keller on his right. 2-0 Chelsea.
44 – Ljungberg gets a strike but but is skitters on the ground and is blocked in front by a defender.
HALF 2-0 Chelsea
Crowd was pretty into it in the first half. The ECS numbers look to have swelled and there is a lot of green everywhere. It’s clearly a partisan crowd but I think many are sort of awestruck by Chelsea. There are some empty seats in the upper deck but the crowd is definitely in the 60,000s.
Lots of changes now..Boss in at GK for Seattle, Le Toux, Z. Scott, King, Sturgis in the game. Keller, Jaqua, Vagenas, Wahl and Alonso out.
Chelsea now has Franco Di Santo, Claudio Pizarro, Andriy Shevchenko, Scott Sinclair, Branislav Ivanovic, Ricardo Carvalho, Juliano Belletti, Sam Hutchinson, GK Henrique Hilario in the game. Cole, Cech, Terry, Alex, Bosingwa, Deco, Malouda, Sturridge, Anelka are out.
55- Boss with a great save on a rebound shot from Di Santo.
57 — Ljungberg corner to Scott, header misses just wide right. Should have had that one.
63 — Ballack out, Mikel in for Chelsea.
Nyassi in, Zakuani out. Levesque in, Montero out for SSFC.
65,289 in the house today.
71 — Evan Brown and Lamar Neagle in for Seattle, Hurtado and Riley out.
72 – Le Toux keeps running and almost blocks the goal kick back into the goal.
73 — Le toux to Nyassi on a breakout, and Nyassi’s shot is just over the goal. Heartbreak. Ljungberg out to a big ovation and Fucito in for Seattle.
75 — Hey now…ref just got right in the face of Chelsea player after a call.
80 — Boss comes too far out, so Scott has to recover and clear the ball away with no keeper in net on a breakout. Good play by Zach.
83 — Scott again saves a goal when he gets back to clear the ball on another Chelsea run.
87 — After Boss with a good save at one end, Nyassi crosses to Levesque whose shot is blocked out of bounds. Crowd really wants a goal for Seattle.
90 — Lampard yellow card….two minutes extra time. Neagle with a shot too high.
2:03 p.m. GAME over. 2-0 Chelsea wins.
Fucito got Essien’s jersey in postgame exchange. Cool for him. He’s a rookie! Marshall got Lampard’s.